Page 282 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

270 Records of Bahrain

D.O. No. C/sogz POLITICAL AGENCY
BAHRAIN.
The of November, 1947-

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Please refer to your demi-official letter No.l783-S
dated tho 13th October, 1947.
2. I regret to have to say that Belgrave has not con­
firmed the presumption that both the 30$ dearness allowance
and the new 20$ will be met from the Shaikh's share of the
oil royalties. Indeed, he has stated that His Highness has
now ordered that the whole dearness allowance at the rate
of 50$ of the Civil List salaries is to be paid from general
revenues. The first payment at tho new rate was made from
them last month. ^ ^ ^ r( ^ *0
3. You will observe from the correspondence referred to
'Ranee by ttaiioway/in his letter No. C/910, dated the 17th August,
1946 - and particularly from prior's demi-official letter
No.lSO-S dated the 13th February,.1943, and Weightman's
demi-official letter No.C/757-10/1, dated the 7th October,
1940 - that this is a question that has for some years past
considerably exercised former Political Agents^ and Residents,
and that a great deal of patient and sometimes unpleasant
work has been done both to keep the Rulers' privy purse
within' its present limits and to prepare the ground for an
eventual reduction in the Ruler's share of the Oil Royalties
from the third that he at present enjoys.
4. ‘It is apparent also that there are occasions in our
dealings with the Rulers of Bahrain when some one has firmly
to say 'No' to the ever-recurring demands for increases in
their share of the State's income; and, in my view, this
occasion is one of them. By arbitrarily increasing tho Civil
List salaries at the expense of the State's general revenues
the Ruler has disregarded all the principles that have been
established by much patient work over a period of years; and,
if this is condoned now, the whole basis of the present
administration of Bahrain - which has been built up to certain
standards by the expenditure of the major portion of the State's
income on the administration, rather than by allowing the Ruler
to spend it on himself and the Al Khalifah - will be undermined.
/There is a...............

The Hon'ble Lt-col. Sir Rupert Hay,
K.C.I.E., C.S.I.,
Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, i - -rv/r.Yj
Bahrain.
3 l NO..
RECORDS
. : ’.'.al
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